The Spanish filmmaker goes back to what he does better than any other living director - post-modernizing the melodrama.

An alt-country paean to libidinal mothers and the little girls who clean up the mess.

What remains of the book's psychological underpinnings -- there are enough here to leave a permanent dent in the couch of any Freud-loving shrink

Has a silly, insouciant glamour often employed to sell hair conditioners and perfume.

It's a more intelligent and dimensional epic than, say, "Anna and the King." Emperor is worth every single penny.

Hytner uses 360-degree camera turns and strange angle shots to inject this largely lifeless business with some drama. Ryder tries to do the same by nearly working herself into cardiac arrest in several monologues. Day-Lewis is acting so hard you can see his lower teeth, which, by the way are sometimes horribly decayed and other times white enough to blind a dental hygienist...See this movie at the peril of your soul.

History rendered with enough brains and imagination to more than make up for its few stumbles.

One of the qualities that makes "12 Monkeys" so good is the fact that it is almost too complicated to explain.

After more than an hour of fun, the film turns dark as Solanas' mental state worsens. Not only does the brilliant kook wear out her welcome with Warhol, but the portrayal also grates on the viewer.

Referring to his love of Hollywood musicals and a working-class background that fostered enduring dreams of making movies one day, Varda creates an homage to a filmmaker's imagination. It doesn't hurt that she was also in love with him.

The movie hits the ground running, so Beatty the actor is forced to go all out from the start.

No amount of excellent period costuming and brilliant set decoration can substitute for a good story and decent acting.

Most disappointing is the fact that the movie ends so abruptly that you can't help wondering what the whole story amounts to, moving as it is.

Baumbach is obviously a bright man, but this material is too thin for anything more than a slight New Yorker short story about thoughtful screw-ups.

There isn't a whole lot of fancy subplotting, just a potpourri of funny and engaging characters.

The finest element in de la Pena's carefully assembled account is how she doesn't simply state the obvious, but lets the meaty facts speak for themselves.

Huston manages to bring the unavoidable brutality of this story to the screen without seeming exploitative. And she gets good performances out of Malone, Leigh and Eldard. Glenne Headly gives a great performance as Leigh's saintly sister.

This is the old beauty and the beast tale, one that Disney has already done well enough. I guess they had so much fun the first time that they just had to do it again.

Tucci and Holm brilliant as magazine writer and artist.

The first more-than-halfway-decent movie of a new millennium.

Martin Scorsese is certainly one of the great living movie directors. Sadly, this does not mean he can't make a mistake. Kundun is a mistake.

Broadway-sized performances.

May be the funniest movie about parental and spousal abuse ever made.

One of the most complex and powerful literary scripts in recent times.

A triptych whirling on a Lazy Susan of revolving character perspectives.

What remains is Washington's volcanic and contemplative work at the core of a film packed to the rafters with raging bull.

An adrenaline-pumping, post-musical musical.

DeVito, whose singing sounds like a cross between coughing and Jimmy Durante on a good day, is a gruff and lovable mentor with a Brooklyn accent and a New Yorker's intolerance for sentimentality. Egan's Meg is a fiery dame with lots of gall. Tate Donovan gives voice to the adult Hercules, and he is just right as an almost Dudley Doright-ish lug who thinks heroics have more to do with physical daring than with big-heartedness. Alan Mencken's original score is boisterous and hummable, and lyrics by David Zippel perfectly suit the story and Disney's recent style for cleverness.